Games and Puzzles

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Card-HousesBox Very Good N.d., circa late 1800s. With 96 pictorial (chromolithographic) cards, and 38 blank cards. An folded instruction sheet as well as instructions pasted onto the underside of the box lid. Pictorial cards are interlocking so that they can be arranged to build various structures, and hence the name of the game, "Card-Houses". The game is in essence a precursor of Lego blocks. Of equal interest is the bright chromolithographic imagery of cats, children, roosters, other animals. The cards are each 4 by 2.5 inches, and they are clean and appropriately stiff. The box housing the cards has had loss to the paper that is pasted onto the boards and there is obvious repair to the sides which had at one point become detached but the box is presently completely functional and it is a small miracle that it has survived at all. The instruction sheet is now backed by a piece of linen paper -- one can see the closed tears that inevitably occurred at the folds of the otherwise brittle sheet.
Price:
475.00 USD

Picnic Party. Scroll PuzzleNew York McLoughlin Brothers 1894 First Edition Very Good The chromolithographic scene in the puzzle and on the box lid is of a bucolic summer picnic of children in the country. Box is 14.5 by 10 by 1.75 inches, and the puzzle proper is 24 by 12 inches. The puzzle is complete and clean. The box image has light soiling throughout and minor blisering by the lettering below. The sides of the box have some small losses and chips to the striped paper, with wood exposed in a few spots. The soiling on the paper strips is heavier here than above. Interior of the box has had a lip installed around the perimeter in order to keep the lid in place.
Price:
475.00 USD

Berquet, lithographer[Puzzle] Paul et Virginie. L'Enfance. Paul and Virginia. The Infancy.Paris Chez Maesani First Edition presumed A spectacular, bright copy of three jigsaw puzzles based on the popular novel by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre which was first published in 1787. The novel takes place primarily in Mauritius, then a French colony, and in the spirit of the Enlightenment, argues for the humanity of slaves and advocates their liberation. All the puzzles, when assembled, are striking hand-colored engravings and artwork. N.d., circa 1830. The original box is 14 by 10.75 inches, or 36 by 27 cm, and the puzzles themselves are about 13 by 10 inches. Probably one puzzle, the one that matches the box lid plate, is missing, and there are no guides for the other three puzzles -- it is unknown if there ever were. The plate on the lid is soiled, especially in the margins, and generally dulled. The puzzles themselves, while have light soiling of their margins, are uncommonly bright. One puzzle has a single piece that has lost its paper pastedown, with no effect on the pictorial and trivial loss of the captioned text. The box itself is well-preserved in terms of structural integrity. A scarce and beautiful item.
Price:
850.00 USD

Roget, P. M. [Peter Mark] (1779-1869)The Economic Chess-Board; Being a Chess-Board Provided with a Complete Set of Chess=Men, Adapted for playing Games in Carriages or out of Doors, and for folding up and carrying in the Pocket, without disturbing the Game. Invented by P. M. Roget, M.D.New York D. Appleton & Co. Slipcase Very Good Scarce, with the only copy located on OCLC at Indiana University, and this a later edition (from the 1870s). N.d., circa 1840s. The slipcase is 15 by 9.5 cm. The board, when open, is 15 by 19 cm, oblong. The design of the game is simple and ingenious, with the pieces made of card cut out into a small wedge shape, the piece identified by an imprint image, and the pieces fitting snugly into sleeves for each of the board spaces, or if a piece is taken out, on the side of the board. This construction allows for an ease of portability superior to many later compact chess boards which use miniature pegs for the pieces, and the bill fold design is also quite handsome. Two pieces, one red castle and one red pawn, are not the original pieces but nearly match them to complete the set. There is a single auction record for what appears to be this version from 2003, at Bonhams in London, and it was missing the very same two pieces. (It is unknown, but unlikely, that this is the same copy that showed up at that auction. The auction estimate by Bonhams was 200 to 400 pounds, and the game sold for 282 pounds, or about $460.) Roget, the original compiler of the eponymous thesaurus, was a trained physician and an accomplished Renaissance man, also inventing a slide rule that allowed for exponential functions, among other things. Wear and soiling to the slipcase, especially the yellow title label. Tear of the yellow background paper of the board itself along the hinge. Some bubbling or blistering of the cloth.
Price:
775.00 USD